Weakness
by iejabynks
Summary: Something that Damon can't resist. Can she tame the beast? Rated for language...
1. Chapter 1

She could swear she saw him just walking on the roof of the boarding house she was living with her estranged uncle whom she never seen or heard before the incident. The incident of that her own parents accused her of killing her sister. The fact is, she never killed anyone and she never had a family to begin with.

Ferfaen Alesci, even she laughs at her own name. Her assumed parents, Frances and Victor Fillippe never even told her but she knew she was not their child. And not just because of the name, or their looks for that matter but for the simple reason of affection. Never once they touched her. Not even her hair. Soon, she became silent of any conversation. Invisible to the naked eye. Though not to her sister. Never by her sister.

Aveline Fillippe. Even her name was gracious. When she walks, it always seemed like she was flying, gliding through the air. Like an Aves, a bird. Her chipper voice would light up the whole house every time. But every time it would be dimmed again with the presence of Ferfaen.

"I saw you looking and lurking like a shadow every day." He said with his deep voice hissing in her ears. "Don't you think that people bound to see and catch you?" He asked as he appeared in front of her.

She took a cautious step back as she smiled. "Too close." She spoke. "No one will see, plus I didn't do anything against the law. Being in the library during lunch is barely considered as lurking around."

"You smell nice." The man said as he encircles her slowly. "You always do."

"Okay creep. Who are you?" She said angrily as the man came nearer and sniffing her. "You pervert." She shouted as she pushed him as hard as she could and walked towards the house. He just backed up a little and smirked.

He stepped behind her following her as she entered the hose but his feet would not go. "Oh come on." He cussed under his breath. Ferfaen stopped in her trail as she turned to see the agitated man standing at her door.

Ferfain walk towards the man and stopped not five feet from him. "Something stopping you? I didn't think something as transparent as a door sill would stop a man like you." She growled. He sighed as he begged for her to let him in. "Why would I? So you could sniff me like a mad dog again? Or that so that you can have free access to this hose whenever you want?" She spat.

"No wonder people don't come near you. You're not humane enough to be human." He shot back.

"At least humane enough not to sniff people like a dog." Ferfaen said as her hand reached for the door. There was something strange about this man that she want to know him. She wants just to continue to talk to him.

Instead of fighting he just turned and walked down the stairs from the house. Ferfain sighed. Anger boiled inside her for not being polite enough to a man that would talk to her but hints of fear and caution that surround her instinct as a person makes her to be just plain rude.

"Wait." Ferfain said as she stepped outside the door. "Don't sniff." She said as she cautiously took a step forward towards him just close enough to see his splashing blue eyes.

"I'm sorry." He said smiling at her. "I should not have done that in the first place. Somehow I got the feeling that you are not surprised to see me." He added.

"You were prancing like a cat on the roof of my room every night, I got used to it." Ferfain spoke as she calmly let her eyes away from the man's. "Why are you here? Why do you come to me?" She asked as she sat on the wet grass.

Her warm body against the wet grass just made the smell even stronger. "Just to make it clear, I was not sniffing you." He said suddenly as he sat down beside her. "You smell of vervain, but you are void of anything that could hold this amount of vervain. I was looking if you had anything hidden." He said truthfully. "I'm Damon Salvatore." He said with his pretty boy smirk.

Ferfaen just shook her head as she let her tied up wine red hair falls on her back. "You're a brave one Mr. Salvatore." She smiled sincerely for the first time in years. He held his hand in front of her in offer of truce. "Ferfaen Alesci." She said frowning. "Just don't laugh." She asked. Damon just shrugged his shoulder.

"Ferfaen. Beautiful." The words escaped his lips without his control. She had never seen him so open yet so fragile. Ferfaen shook her head sweltering with annoyance as she stood up. "Wait. What did I do?" He questioned her lost in the haze of the wonderful scent of beauty before him.

The girl sighed. She was so clear with emotion of others towards her. She was definite about other people's take on what she is, but this time she was unsure if he was really faking it or was he just acting for the sake of her companion.

Damon trailed the girl hypnotically as she paced her step carefully towards the wood. His usually fierce façade was very tame and timid. His animalistic instinct somehow drowns in the mist of the alluring scent escaping from her. "Why me?" She spoke suddenly stopping and stood still with her back facing him. Damon just shook his head.

He himself does not know what she was feeling. Yet it felt human. He felt humility, attraction, yet he felt shy and scared. A feeling he had forgotten for many years. "I don't know. I hope that you could tell me. I have not felt like this in many decades." He spoke as if barriers between him and humans do not exist.

Ferfaen slowly turned to face him; her hands trembled as she raised them to touch him. A human touch that she had lust for many years. Their skin barely touched as she jolted back. Warm liquid brimmed her eyes. She was certain she was void of human touch forever. "No." He cried a soft whisper. "Don't. Don't waste that tear for me." He turned away as he felt himself changing into the animal that he loathed he was.

"What are you?" She asked as she stepped nearer to him. "My god what have I done." She fell to her knees. "She was like you when she died. Her eyes. Her veins stuck out like wire against her soft skin." She trembled as she spoke.

She wrapped her arms around her knees as she rocked back and forth as tears bean to soak her already damped jeans. A swift wind blew past her and she knew he had gone. Gone like the rest of them. Leaving her there. Alone.


	2. Chapter 2

The sky could not get any darker. The moon light could not be any dimmer. Linden shook his head as he sees the open door and wet shoe prints on the lawn. "Ferfaen. I told you to stay away from those boys." He spoke softly through his gritted teeth. "Damn you Hartford for sending me your angels."

Quietly he stepped out of the boarding house and called gently for the young girl under his care. He knows that she would not go far. She was alone and afraid. As independent as she might have been, she was very dependent on him since her adopted parents sent her there. He could not find one possible or even reasonable reason for them to take her in the first place but they did anyway.

_Paolo looked at the passenger seat beside him. The little frail angel securely strapped in her baby carriage looking up innocently at him. The resemblance of her and her mother was uncanny. Gently he placed his hand on her as he caressed her red hair softly._

"_If I ever leave her alone in this world, please care for her like she is your own…" Paolo said as he handed the little baby into the younger man's arm. "You are all she has left, Linden. Her mother left us." He spoke as his eyes tearing up and his hand fiddling with the wedding band that was still on his ring finger. _

_Linden smiled as the little one touched his face playfully. "Nothing shall happen to you, son. Veronica loved you and I know she will not want anything to happen to you as she is not here to take care of her child on her own anymore." He spoke with such manner and grace that only possessed by men in the olden days._

"_Veronica told me about you and what happened. She told me such monstrous stories about you but I think she was just in too much pain to even know what she was talking about. I trust you and I know you will care for her as she and I would have." Paolo said softly. _

"Ferfaen, dear. Come on home, love. There is no use for you to stay in the cold wallowing in your sadness." Linden said softly as he saw the young girl rocking back and forth still hugging her knees and weeping softly.

She has been afraid to be touched by anyone. He respected that but he had not the slightest idea of why would such thing even happen. The last time he touched her was when she could not even say a word and had only one teeth in her mouth.

Ferfaen shook her head lightly between her knees. "This will be my home. This will be the place I want to be rested in. I have no home and I have no one. You're going to leave like everyone else. You're going to let me be alone as everyone has." She spoke softly.

"Ferfaen, you need to come inside. It's getting colder and you are still weak." Linden said as he lowered himself into a squat to be at the same height as she was. "Come inside where it's warmer and safer, Ferfaen."

"I'm not safe for anyone." Ferfaen said as she looked at her guardian. "Not here, not anywhere."

Linden sighed. "That is not true, Ferfaen." He said softly. "You're safe with me. You can never harm me." He knew exactly what she was saying. Her nightmares terrified her. Her last guardian did not make it any easier memory for her to remember.

"I killed both my parents and my sister, Linden. I killed them all." Ferfaen said as her tears rolled down her cheek. "I deserved to be hated by Ma and Pa."

Linden shook his head gently as he stood up and offered his hand. "Come on, inside where it's warmer. We can talk about your parents. Your real parents. And your cousin Aveline." Ferfaen just stared at his hand not knowing what to do. "You won't kill me by touching my skin, Ferfaen." He smiled as he spoke softly. "I need to get you inside." He said. "I'll tell you everything. But I need you to come inside."

Slowly Ferfaen rise on her own, declining Linden's helping hand. She crossed her arms around her body as she walked towards the house. Linden took his jacket out and wrapped them around Ferfaen's shoulders. She looked up at his bright green eyes. There she found only pity and sympathy. The anger that resides there was no longer seen.

Ferfaen stopped in her trail as she looked up at the older man beside her. There was warmth in his eyes yet a cold fog overshadow the warmth and trapped them in. "Why are you being kind to me, Linden? Why are you taking care of me?" She questioned.

Linden just shrugged as he smiled softly at the young girl. "Why wouldn't I be? You are not well and you have my blood in you." He spoke softly. "Come on now." He said as he pulled out a chair at the dining table for Ferfaen to seat in. "You have to have some food in your stomach before you eat your medication. Here." He said as he pushed a bowl of soup and a loaf of bread towards her.

Ferfaen shook her head. "I'm not hungry." She said quietly. "Why do I have your blood in me?" She asked naively. "I mean, how?"

Smiling, Linden spoke. "Only if you have your dinner. I'll tell you then." He coaxed. Ferfaen looked away. She hated to be told what to do and when to do it. "Ferfaen please eat something. I know you don't like to be asked to do, but please have something to eat, dear."

"Tell me how, Linden. Tell me…" Ferfaen demanded.

"Ferfaen, there is no need for the self torture, dear. The past is history, love. And for every life it was promised death. But none are to be self torture and suicide." Linden spoke with a low voice. "Ferfaen, I would leave you as you please, but I once promised your father to care for you as my own."

Ferfaen stood up and turned away from the table. "Don't speak of him as if you know him. And don't speak of those things that you don't know of, Linden." She snapped. "If I were to have your blood in me, then why did you gave me to hell? And why the shame of even touching my hair?" She screamed.

Linden stood up quietly as he step closer towards her as he shook his head. "It was never out of shame, Ferfaen. It was never out of shame." He spoke softly. "I never gave you up as I was never listed as your legal guardian. I could not be. I search for you as soon as I heard. But it was not soon enough for me to get to you."

Softly Linden placed his hands on her shoulders as he gently spun her around and lowered himself to her height. "I'm never ashamed to touch you, Ferfaen. I'm just afraid I might lose you again. I'm afraid you might run from me." Linden spoke as he pulled her nearer to him. "I would not have nurse you if I were ashamed of you. I would not have protected you from those men if I didn't love you. But I needed you to be near to me."

"Who are you?" Ferfaen spoke through her sobs. "Who are you, Linden? Who are you to me?" She questioned. Linden squeezed his eyes shut as if he was shying away from pain. "You said you would tell me." She said.

Linden scooped her up and brought her back to the table. "As soon as you are medicated, love." He said as he lowered her onto his lap as he shreds a little piece of bread from the loaf and feed it gently to her.

_Never has he ever asked for eternity of torment. Living in the world forever. He was a fine young man of twenty nine and almost married. His only mistake was to believe in true love. The only lady he had given his heart to, but only to have them betrayed in return. Though he had his share of living and fathering a son before giving up on his life. For a hundred years he lived his life in tormenting himself for being blinded by love. _

_For years after he repented for the sins he had done along the way. Soon he found that his son had fathered a son and daughter and they had children of their own as well. Finally at peace with his fate he moved across the sea to the new world. Keeping abreast with the news of his heir that he had never knew._

_It was more than ten generations later, he gotten to know that his granddaughter married an Italian aristocrat and removed themselves to the new world. He was nearer than ever to his descendants. Years after, he was close enough to them only to hear the bad side of himself that have been passed through the generations. _

"_He fell into the fire of hell as Satan engulfed on his soul. He feed upon other souls just to be walking among the living." Linden heard Veronica said in a giggling voice. "That was the story my father told me if I would not sleep at night or if I was naughty. But I don't believe him. I think grandpa Linden will be my guardian angel when I join him in heavens." She spoke as she handed her husband a sketch of what her grandfather of six generations before her to suppose have looked like. _

_Paolo's smile turned into a sad frown. "Harold Grimwald." He said._

"_No. His name was Linden Vane." Veronica spoke. _

_It was the he told Paolo about his life. About the mistakes and the evil that had consumed him once before. Paolo did not run. He did not pity nor did he show him sympathy. He sat there and listened. He listened and he weighs the side of the story that he never had heard before. _

_Long after the time he had told him the story, Linden removed himself to a secluded boardinghouse which he bought over in Mystic Falls, Virginia where no one cared to ask for his history. He kept about the move quiet, only to have told about to Paolo._

_It was not two years later he heard that they had a daughter and his granddaughter had ended her life story soon after giving birth to the beautiful red headed daughter. Paolo came to him and showed her to him. Never once had Paolo mentioned about his family to neither him nor his wife. He was an aristocrat. He was rich but he gave everything up just to marry Veronica who was yet to be of age. He was denied of his inheritance but he moved on. _

_When he was on his way back to California from meeting Linden in Virginia, he failed to control is car and the legal guardianship of his little girl automatically fell into the hands of his elder and only sister Frances._

_For years Linden began to track both Frances and her husband to claim his heir, but he failed. He failed miserably until he saw the face that was seared into his brain of a baby called the '_devil's child'. _His little angel. _

"I came to know about Aveline from a man called Stefan Salvatore. A man I had seen many times that I was here. A man that was also on the run as I am." Linden said softly as he caressed the young girl's red hair as he rocked her in his creaking rocking chair where he finds solace. "Stefan said his brother had feed upon Aveline till the extend of her death and soon after turned her into them and sent her home."

Ferfaen leaned her heavy head against Linden's shoulder and looked up to him. "Why couldn't she touch me?" She questioned.

Linden smiled. "Because you're special child. Because you were blessed and cursed upon when you were born." He said. "You were conceived with the aid of a herb called Vervain. Your mother was poisoned with the same herb to put her in early labor. And now you are fed with the same thing to heal your inner wounds."

"Ferfaen." Ferfaen uttered. "I was name after a poison. I am the poison." She trembled as she spoke.

Linden shook his head. "Only to vampires. Only to them that feed upon your blood." He said. "I think that's enough, for one night. Rest as you will have another long day tomorrow at school."

"You are also…" Ferfaen trailed in the midst of her sentence. Linden nodded absently. "I could be a poison to you." She spoke as she struggled to get up.

"No love. I feed you the medication. If I were to be poisoned, it will be by my own doing." Linden spoke. "Now rest your mind, and have a well dream for this lovely night."


	3. Chapter 3

As her usual self, Ferfaen sat quietly at the far corner seat in the library. She remembered each word Linden told her the other night. She also remembered Damon being a terrified monster after he smelled her.

Inner wounds. She knew of them but she never admitted it to Linden. Linden knew something must have gone wary in her years growing in the household of sadistic people, but he never gotten to the point of knowing the true story.

"He saw me, didn't he?" The familiar voice said as he sat beside Ferfaen. She just shrugged as she turned her concentration back to her book. "Why is he infusing you with Vervain when he knows it too could kill him?" He questioned. "What is he treating you for?" Again Ferfaen shrugged. "Come on Ferfaen. I know you can speak. Why do you hate me?"

"I don't hate you." Ferfaen said quietly. Damon came nearer to her. "Just your brother." She whispered under her breath. Damon sat stunned.

It was very rare that Stefan was the one to be loathed. It was usually him. "Just go away, leave my family alone. Have you not seen me suffer enough already?" She closed her book and stood up from the chair.

Since she could remember, Ferfaen thought her brain was impaired since she was born. Last night when she hears the story, she knew it was not. Aveline was her guardian angel. She was as the same age of Ferfaen's mother and she was a very good friend to her father. Her parents might have hated Paolo and Ferfaen, but they loved Veronica.

"_She was still a child when he eloped with her. That bastard ruins a young girl's life." Ferfaen heard Victor spoke to a person over the phone one night. "He fathered a bastard child of his own and they both shall be damned."_

Ferfaen still could feel the cold hands of Aveline covering her ears every time her parents talked bad things about Paolo. "Every child deserves to love their parents." Aveline once said. "I know I loved mine, but their evil is so apparent now, and it makes it harder to do so."

Finally he left her alone. But the paring did not last long enough for her to form a smile on her face. "Why are you taking Vervain tincture?" Damon said as he trailed her as she walked through the grave yard. A short cut to her home. Ferfaen just ignored him as she paced faster. "You can't out run me." He said suddenly standing in front of her.

Ferfaen shrugged and continued to walk. "I'm not leaving without answer, Ferfaen." Damon said as he grabbed her arm. "I know it's not for protection. You don't need that much of Vervain to be in your blood for protection against vampires." He said as he let go of the young girl. Ferfaen just kept quiet and kept walking. "Tell me why, please." Damon begged.

"What is it to you?" Ferfaen questioned the older boy beside her. "Why do you want to know? Why is it important for you to know?" She asked as she mocked a smile at him. She could see he was in the most uncomfortable situation. She needs not to see his face to know that he was in his true form. The monster that he was. That his brother was. She could feel his hunger increasing every time her heart pumped blood through her body. "You can't feed on me ever can you?" She stopped as she faced the monster beside her.

Damon took a step back, startled. Slowly his face morphed back to the handsome young man that he is. "Yesterday you looked at me terrified. When you knew I was not human, you were not that scared. Why?" Damon questioned.

"It's none of your business." Ferfaen said and walked away. "Give up already. Stop following me." Ferfaen said.

"You said you don't hate me. Why are you pushing me away while you have no human connection with anyone in this sad place?" Damon asked, as he walked beside the young girl. Ferfaen just sighed. "I'll leave you alone if you answer these two question." Damon said finally.

Ferfaen stopped and faced the man. "Fine." She said.

"Why are you consuming Vervain?" Damon questioned her with a non imposing manner.

Ferfaen smiled. "Because it's the only thing that helps with my brain." She answered. Damon was not satisfied with her answer and waited for her to continue. "Are you going to ask me the second question or not?" She asked him. "Linden is waiting for me." She said as she began to walk. Damon just trailed her. "Linden told me to stay away as far as I could from you and your brother and I intend to follow his order. Unless you have business with Linden, you better go. I want nothing to do with you or your brother."

"I mean no harm." Damon said. "To kill you or Linden is to kill whatever humanity left in my body. And that will not happen."

"Why so?" Ferfaen asked.

"Answer me and you'll have any answer that is buried in me." Damon said. "I know you are Veronica Vane's daughter." Damon said finally. Ferfaen just rolled her eyes as she stepped in the boarding house without even inviting Damon in.

Ferfaen shook her head as she went up the stairs and came down in a different outfit. "Pa, I'm back." Ferfaen called from the top of the stairs. "Pa?" She called again.

"Why is he here, love?" Linden asked as he greeted her out of nowhere. Ferfaen just smiled. Damon's pale face turned white as he saw Linden. "Seeing a ghost of the past Damon?" He questioned as he walked down the stairs with Ferfaen trailing behind him. "Come on in." He said as Damon elegantly declined. "Afraid I'll kill you like your brother did to my granddaughter?"

"I have nothing to do with that and we didn't know Veronica was your grandchild, sir." Damon said as his eyes were terrified to look at Linden.

"He's harmless, unless he has a death wish." Linden said cockily as he took a step closer towards Damon. Damon looked upon his feet without a reply. "Look up when I speak to you boy." Linden commanded. Ferfaen never seen a person so terrified, more terrified then herself when she looked at Victor. Linden's eyes were on fire while Damon's were tormented. "If you or any of the other as much as scratch another of my blood, you will wish you were never born, clear?" Linden spoke.

"Yes, sir." Damon stammered. He felt his leg stiffens. He could go in but he would not dare. He has heard of Linden coming to Mystic Falls but he never thought it could be the same Linden that had thought him and his brother everything that they knew.

Ferfaen stood dazed seeing Damon so frail in front of Linden. A side neither she nor anyone else ever seen of Damon. Not even Stefan. "Come on in and sit like a civilized person." Linden instructed as he held the door open as to invite his guest in. "Young lady, you come with me." He said in a much gentler manner.

*******

Damon threw his vision far away. As far as he could see and listened to the furthers noise his ear could hear. "Why are you afraid of Linden?" Ferfaen spoke as she took a seat beside him on the edge of the cliff not too far from her home.

"I'll answer your questions if you answer mine." Damon said absently.

"When I was a kid, I got into an accident that affected my brain and I have epilepsy. Vervain helps. And it helps me sleep at night." Ferfaen said looking down carefully as she was afraid of heights.

"I'm not afraid of him. I respect him. He took us out of hell and gave us heaven and earth. In the end, we chose hell anyway." Damon spoke. "Herbert Linden Vane. He saved both my brother and I from the drunkard that nearly killed us both. He was our teacher a long time ago." He explained. Ferfaen just nodded. "Why were you scared to touch me the other night?" He questioned. Ferfaen's calm face turned sour.

Ferfaen shook her head as she stood up. "Let's not go there." She said hastily as she turned away from Damon. "How do you know my mother?" She asked trying to change the subject. Damon kept still in his position. "Damon." She said his name for the first time without anger or spite. "I don't want to remember why. I can't. The black outs stops as I stop remembering them." She said with a sad tone.

Damon sighed. "It has always been the case that I have to have what my brother has. It started with Katherine." He said. "I was posing as a college student when your mother was working part time at the book store near my campus. Her beauty was striking, even more than Katherine was. But she could not have been older than you are now." He paused and turned towards Ferfaen.

"I fell in love with her." Damon spoke with such finality. "But I was not the Italian blue blood that brought her to this part of the earth. I was a no body and I was still confused between the feeling of love and lust after all."

Ferfaen was lost for words and her face was void of all emotion. The face that was familiar to him. The face that she wore the first night he saw her. "I'm sorry." Damon said suddenly.

"Why did you kill her if you loved her?" Ferfaen asked.

"I did not." Damon said as he neared her. For every step forward he took, she took a step backward. "I did not kill her. Not literally. I killed her soul, but my brother spiked her with Vervain, thinking the child that she was carrying was mine. Little that he knew that not me nor him could father a child after we was turned. I didn't know she was pregnant and I didn't know that she was married. She needed money and I paid her." Damon explained. "She was six months pregnant. It was a miracle that you survived. She was too young and too weak to give birth; your father was working late. Nothing that the doctors can do to stop her bleeding."

"Why would he want to kill her?" Ferfaen questioned. "What did she ever do to either of you?" she demanded.

"Because I loved her. Because he thought she was bearing my child." Damon repeated his words trying to make her believe him.

"I don't want to hear anything more from you." Ferfaen said as she turned on her heels and ran as fast as she could to the comfort of her books.

Damon stood outside on the lawn as he spoke loudly. There were no other houses nearby so there was nothing he would want to hide from. "She was still alive for six months after I left. I never came back to her. I never wanted to, and I know to stay away from her. I didn't kill her, Ferfaen." Damon pleaded. "All I wanted to know is why do you despise me? Or afraid of me when I tried to touch you." Damon spoke.

"Isn't killing my mother reason enough?" Ferfaen questioned as tears of hatred sting her eyes. "Go away. I hate you."

Damon felt as if his heart was being stabbed by thousands of pins that were immerse in poison. "The face, the reaction. Your eyes. Your smell. I knew you. I need to know." Damon writhed in pain as he spoke. "Five years ago. I met a young girl…"

"Enough." Linden inferred. "She doesn't need to know about her cousin."

"Her smell…" Damon started as he could not let go without an answer.

Linden calmed him down as sat him on the bench on the lawn. "Veronica wanted a child. With her delicate body and her young womb, she could not conceive. Her husband sought a shaman, and he advised her to take Vervain for fertility. Even before she was conceived, her blood was already tainted with Vervain. It has always been in her blood." Linden said.

"Devil's child." Escaped from Damon's mouth before he felt a strike on his cheek.

Linden looked at Damon with spite. "Never call her that." A sudden loud thump startled both men as they rushed inside the house. Linden broke Ferfaen's bedroom door and found his little angel seizing violently on the floor.

_Nine year old Ferfaen curled up in the corner shivering from fright as she saw the monster that carried her older cousin away. She only wished that he had not return Aveline back to them. Aveline looked fine when she came back but her normalcy did not last long. She was craving for blood every night up until she bites Ferfaen. It happened within minutes. All she did was merely pushed her away, but Aveline became weak. After a day, she was cold. Colder than of ice. Her eyes were cloudy and her breath was no longer there. She was dead. In front of her own eyes._

_Days and weeks passed. She was thrown more and more into oblivion. She was not spoken to, she was not permitted to go out and she was raped over and over again. What was once the cleanest room in the house became wretched with vomit, blood and urine. There were days that she knew what happened and there were days she had no idea. There was time she woke up crying in pain and there was time she was dazed from them._

_Soon she learns to be void of emotion. Soon she realized that she was merely an animal to suffice her uncle's need. He did not care of her sickness. He did not care for her needs. Bit by bit, slowly she was engulfed pain, emptiness and oblivion._

Linden cradled his little angel in his lap as Damon sat frozen. He had seen her before. It was his mistake that ruined her life. It was not once. It was his fault that her father was in an accident. It was his fault that her mother died. And it was his fault he took the wrong girl in his arms that night.

The smell of Vervain was thick as Ferfaen's sweat drenched Linden. "Don't leave me Ferfaen. It was too short for a time you gave me. I was supposed to cure you not make you worse." He whispered softly into her ear.

"Mr. Vane. It was all my wrong doings. It was all on me. From the day she was conceive till this hour. It was all on me. Shall you decide to take away my immortality..." Damon spoke as his voice trembled.

"We shall talk history later, Damon. Those nightmare of hers were all too real. It was also my cowardness that brought her to this state." Linden spoke calmly with his eyes never blinking or even looked away from Ferfaen.

*******

Damon sat on the couch as Linden cradled the young lady in his arm towards the rocking chair. Her body were as tired as her mind was. Linden caressed her hair delicately. While Damon looked silently at the result of his mistakes. He ignored all his other senses as he was concentrating on his past.

"Go back child. You are of no use here." Linden spoke softly as he hears the buzzing sound from his pocket for the upteenth time. "I don't require you here." He said.

Damon stood up. "I will not leave for I don't want to, unless you are throwing me out." He spoke.

"I'm neither your master nor your governess anymore child. You are old enough to do as you please." Linden spoke. Ferfaen stirred in his arms as he hushed her. "Everything is fine now." He whispered softly.


	4. Chapter 4

Ferfaen sat quietly at the darkest corner, as her emotion returned to its initial state. She no longer wanted to be touched or spoke to. It was almost as if her brain reboots itself to the day she first came into the house. Linden sat quietly beside her. There was not even the sound of his breath. "Do you trust me?" He whispered as he looked at her.

Ferfaen just shrugged her shoulders. Linden extended his pale hand in front of him as his palms faced the sky. "If you think you could trust me, touch my hand, Ferfaen. I promise you I will not go away, and I will not leave you alone." He spoke.

Quietly she shook her head. Ferfaen leaned on towards the wall as she mumbled some words. Gradually it became more clear for Linden to hear. "You cannot harm me, child." Linden spoke softly. "You will never." He said.

Linden stood up and sighed at the young terrified girl. "Alright now, at least come by the fire. It's warmer." Ferfaen again just shook her head. "Oh, dear. What is bothering you? Why are you being like this? What did you see that terrified you to this state?" He questioned absently as he poured a cup of herb tea for the young girl.

"I saw them die. I saw they all die over and over. It was all my fault. It was all my fault." Ferfaen spoke as tears streamed down her cheek.

"It was never your fault." Linden spoke softly as he handed her the cup. "This'll do you some good. It'll put your mind to a rest. You need it, love." He smiled his beautiful smile.

Ferfaen looked up towards him. "When you said I could not hurt you, do you mean it?" She spoke as her eyes glisten with hope. Linden nodded. "I saw them die. I saw them die because of me." She said with a trembling voice. Linden neared her as he touched her hair.

Gently he hushed her as spoke so softly to her ears. "They did not die because of you, darling. They die for you. You mother give her life so you could live. Your father gave his so he could watch you from the heavens. And Aveline, so that she shall not hurt you or anyone else." Linden softly wrapped his arms around her and walked her to the fire place where Damon was sitting.

Ferfaen's eyes filled with wary and skeptics. Her body was still trembling a little as the effect of the earlier episode that she had. "You have to speak to me eventually, Ferfaen." Damon spoke from his place opposite her. Linden looked at the little girl than to the man. He wondered himself why the affection towards this child.

Could he really have fathered the child instead of Paolo? Could she really be a child out of wed lock? But there was no traces of him in her , only his affection towards the child remained unanswered.

When he was sure the young child was soundly in her dreamland, Linden spoke to Damon. "Do you think of her as yours?" He questioned. Damon's senses jolted from the quiet stillness and became awake. He shook his head. "Why do you come to her?" He questioned.

"I don't know. I don't have the answer to the question." Damon answered coyly. "Maybe she brings out something that I thought I have lost a long time ago." He said. "She gave me the pleasure of feeling pain, she made me feel human again."

Linden stared aimlessly at the fire burning in the hearth. "I saw you growing up. You were a fine young man. You have a brilliant mind. What changed you? The war between you and your brother must end. It cannot persist. In hurting each other, you hurt others. Innocent people." Linden spoke as he looked down.

Damon's strong usually fiery and strong eyes fell soft against the little girl. He had never felt such pain and misery in his life. Never had he felt the pain so intense as that was radiated from Ferfaen.

Linden turned his vision toward the monster that he helped created. "What are you thinking of son? What held your quick tongue from countering me? What held your mind form quipping up smart answers that you usually gave?" He asked gently.

Damon's face fell lower, as low as the earth beneath his feet. All he did was shook his head silently. His hand trembled as he gripped the side of the chair. "What is it that changed you son?" Linden questioned. "Could it be your upbringing or could it be the hardness of your nature that had changed you?"

Damon forced himself to face the man that brought him up. "It was neither, sir. It was not nature nor was it about the life you gave me. It was just the game of life that I have brought against myself that hardens me. It was such as that I could feel nothing when I see nothing and remember nothing."

"That is not living. That is merely being a puppet for the show of others. Why do you choose to be like this?" Linden spoke as he stood up and laid the young girl on the couch as he wrapped her with a warm blanket. Damon shook his head as he followed the not much older man and knelt beside the girl.

"The fear, the sadness in her eyes woke the feeling that I have not felt in many years. The touch of her skin made me feel the feeling that I put to sleep many years before. She brought back humanity in me. And I ruined her." Damon said softly as he touched the young girl gently.

Ferfaen turned her body slowly as she opened her eyes. The dim light seemed a little bright to her. A small curved formed on her face as if she was smiling up towards the monster before her. "I hope I didn't scare you and Uncle Linden much." Her voice cracked as she spoke.

"You certainly made my unbeating heart skipped." Damon replied softly. His body shielding her from the light behind him as the halo surrounding him made him seemed like an angel instead of the demon that he was. His body slowly shifting away from her making way for Linden to near her.

Ferfaen caught his hand as she held it tight. "Don't go. Please. Don't leave." She spoke softly.

"I'll not go anywhere. I'll be right here." Damon smiled gently as he spoke. His voice sounded so different, so tender that he surprised himself. "Just rest. I'll be right here." He spoke softly as her eyes closed slowly yet again as she fell into a deep sleep.

Linden smiled. The Damon he just saw was the Damon that he had raised. The gentle young man with such manner that no one had ever thought he had. Linden rose and left them in the living room. Damon normally sly face looked blank. He let his head touch the hand of the couch where Ferfaen's head was on the other side.

_The night sky was starless and the clouds dimmed the light from the moon. His tired mind would not stop and his eyes just could not shut. He smiled his eyes fell on the little body of his brother who was soundly asleep. The least he could do was keep him safe. _

_The damp shoe sound on the ground terrified him. Gently he edged closer towards his brother as he pretended to be asleep. He felt the cold hand of his father's on his arm but he chose to ignore it. He felt the pain that strike his jaw but he chose to ignore it as well. The stank of alcohol in his father's breath was thick and awful. _

"_Strike me all you want but spare him the misery." Damon spoke strongly as he stood up and faced his father. The drunken man just smiled mockingly at his as he reached for the younger boy. "If you even as much as lay a finger on him, I'll kill you." He shouted as he pushed the man who was more than thrice his size as hard as he could._

_An evil laugh escaped from the drunken man. "What are you going to do? Strike me back? You think you are strong enough?" the man mocked his young son._

_Damon squinted is eyes as his hand reached for the brick that he had hidden under his bed. "You have no idea what I'm capable of, worthless old man." He spat. _

Damon jolted to awareness as he felt small hands on his arm as he picked his head up to see the owner of the hand. "You're up." He said as she smiled at him and nodded. "Did I wake you up?" He questioned her softly. Ferfaen shook her head as she sat herself down beside him.

Gently she let her head leaned on Damon's shoulders as she breathed a long sigh. "I don't remember what I say or do after the seizures. But I do remember the things I see during them. Only that I'm not sure if what I saw was real or it was just a hallucination." Ferfaen said. Damon's cold hand gently caressed her hair as he listened.

"I saw you held me. I saw you loved me. I saw you protected me. It was you all along. You called me Sofea. Your little angel. You see to me every night. You saw what they did to me and you did nothing to stop them. You just stared at me. And watch it all." Ferfaen continued as she sank deeper in confidant with Damon. "Is it real?" She questioned as she turned and looked at him.

Damon turned his face away from hers as her eyes pierced deep in to his soul. He wanted to move but he felt that he would be betraying her. He had betrayed the trust of everyone else he had loved in the past and he had betrayed the only promised he had made in over a century ago t the only person that had saved him from his own life. His cold hand froze and his cold eyes transfixed.

Feeling the tense building between herself and Damon, Ferfaen removed herself and moved back to the couch. "It's fine if you don't want to talk to me." She said quietly as she opened the book that laid on the coffee table. Mindlessly her eyes scanned the words on the pages as she had read it many times before.

"You are just like her, Ferfaen. You have a picture of what you see in your head. Even from when you can't even speak yet. But you are much much stronger than she was." Damon spoke as he flee from the house.

Ferfaen closed her eyes as her jaw tightens. She felt the familiar breeze as he went by her. "What are you hiding from me, god? Why show me these people if you don't want me to meet them and why reveal me my past if you don't want me to know about it?" Ferfaen spoke softly by herself.


	5. Chapter 5

Damon saw his brother was sitting in the study like he had always done when he suspects of bad things about him. "Shut up and mind your own business, little brother." Damon said even before Stefan had any time to even think of as string of word to say to his brother. "I didn't do anything illegal and I'm not in the mood to hear your voice."

Stefan ignored what he just heard and went for his brother. "Did you tell her anything?" He questioned. "Did you tell her about Veronica and about her?" Stefan spoke as his voice rushed with apprehension.

"Get out Stefan." Damon said calmly as he turned himself away from his brother.

Stefan insistently stepped closer towards him. "I will not." He spoke cockily. "I mean you would have killed me if you wanted to. What stopped you?" He breathed on the back of Damon's neck. "What stopped you?"

Anger and frustration boiled and simmered concurrently in Damon. All he wanted to do was to snap his little brother's neck and get it over with. He knew he was capable of it. Although something was stopping him. Some little thing called a conscience. "Death is not something to pray off little brother." He spoke calmly as he felt his face crumpling into the monster that he loathed to be.

Stefan stood arrogantly still behind Damon. Angering his wrath further. "Suddenly you feel human now? You actually have memories and soul now?" He spoke. A little too carelessly. Damon's strong hands caught him around his neck.

"There are things a kid should never remember. Sometimes those memories come handy in a moment like this. I swear if I could have turned back time, I would have never asked for her to make you even human like you are today." Damon spat at his brother as he pushes him out of his room.

The rang of his cell phone startled him. Damon pressed the answer button without looking at who it was and without saying a word. "I knew you would keep your number in her phone." The familiar voice said. "Listen, you don't have to say anything or even come. But I'm calling you for her sake. Ferfaen was missed diagnosed with epilepsy the last time she came. Victor never brought her to the doctors and Vervain was just suppressing the signs. You were the last person she tried to call but you were unreachable." Linden spoke. Damon's voice was too stunned to even croak to him that he was there. Instead, he let the line died.

_Aveline begged for her little cousin to be taken care of. "She's bleeding out of her ear, ma. How can she be faking it?" The soft voice cried at her mother as she cradled the little frail being in her hand. _

If only he could have had the courage to be invited to be with her and to save her from the hell he had given to her. A hell that he help build. "Don't ask." Damon said as he dashed out the door. Stefan and Elena who just stepped in just stared at each other.

Elena looked questioningly at Stefan. She assumed he knew what was going on. "You should stop him from hurting anymore people. I mean Ferfaen is perfectly harmless. She never bothered anyone."

His flowing brilliant green eyes went still. "How did you know about her?" Stefan's cold voice sounded foreign to him as he spoke.

"I don't know what you two are up to, Stefan. She's a good girl." Elena said as she headed for the door. "Don't follow me, Stefan." She spoke underneath her breath.

"Elena." Stefan said commandingly. "Elena, she's harmless to humans, but she is full of Vervain. Not me, or Damon could hurt her or even taste her blood. Her guardian made sure of it."

Elena stopped. Her heart felt for him but she was not sure to feel bad or sad for him. "What is Ferfaen to him? He's obsessed and he looks human around her." She spoke. "Almost, no he looks like he's crushing on her. Like a little puppy."

Stefan tight face softens as his mouth cracked into a soft smile. "A little puppy that you would want to crush and burn." He spoke.

"You see, I don't understand this obsession that you hate your brother so much, yes he's bad, but it seems like to me you both are racing towards the same thing. Neither one of you can bear to see either one of you happy." Elena said.

Stefan paused to have a thought before he spoke. "Ferfaen was not always, Ferfaen." Stefan started. He hesitated to tell her the story but he knew in order to gain her trust back, he had to. And he had to beat Damon to it. "Her name was Sofea Salvatore Alesci." He spoke.

Elena turned and faced her boyfriend in shock. "Was she yours or Damon's?" She questioned.

"Elena, it's not like that." Stefan scolded. "She was not ours. She was his god daughter. I understand why he would want to hurt you and why he would want to take you from me. But I thought she was dead. He protected her from me. He went as far as changing the little girl's identity." He explained. He knew he had to tell her but he could only tell her enough to not show her his bad side.

Elena stood still. Too stun for her words to come out of her lips. Her eyes blinked for a few times but what she heard still does not make sense to her. "Why protect her from you?" She questioned suddenly.

Stefan just ignored the questioned as he lead her into her car. "It doesn't matter now." He said as he dashed off to another place leaving Elena alone in her car.

*******

"I thought you wouldn't come." Linden said as his eyes never veered away from the young girl on the other side of the glass wall. Damon stood still beside him. He felt guilty, he felt angered and he felt remorse for the first time in many years. "All those years, all these years I thought she was dead. Stefan told me she was dead." Linden started.

Damon backed up and moved away from the ward. He did not want to tell his art of the story and he did not want anyone to know the deal he had made with Paolo. He wanted to just keep away but the young girl is innocent and she had nothing to do with her parent's sins or the sins of her forefather. He had seen her grew up. He had seen her silent by the hardness around her and he had helped her shut off herself from the cruel world. She was a chirpy and lively baby when she was born. She was almost his life.

Linden followed him into the darkness of the night. "When I got her back, I thought what I was told was the truth. I mean why would a stranger want to lie? Right?" He spoke. "I looked into their names again."

"Frances and Victor Fillippe was born eighteen ninety eight." Damon spoke. "They appeared to me as friends." He began. "I didn't know. There were three girls before Aveline and all of them were strays. They picked them up from homeless places and all kind of other places, just to show that they are like any other normal couple. All three of them were fine. One even graduated top of her class." Damon felt as if his legs would betray him at that point. He did not know why it was so hard for him to tell anyone of what had happened in the past. "Then they got Aveline. She was different. Aveline was left at their door."

_The sun shone brightly but the dark cloud from a far tried to threaten the shine. Frances just finished unpacking her things into the new house when the knock fell on her door. As she opened her door there she was. With her there was a letter enclosed. It read. 'A bird sent you a gift and with hopes that you could keep her safe from harm.' Behind it were a locket of Lapis and a ring of the same stone. _

_The person who sent the little one knew of what they were. She was named Aveline and Frances acted as if she gave birth to the child. Aveline grew up to be pretty and rebellious girl. She went to college and met with Paolo. A handsome young heir, but over thrown for the result of love alone. She knew she could never get him, and she knew a man that could make him believe anything the man wants. _

_Damon was just looking for prey and he wanted nothing to do with the Fillippe but he had no other choice. They had landed in his place. A charming girl as she was, she was also quite brilliant. She knows of the herb Vervain and she knew it would hurt any of his kind to ingest it. Damon followed through as long as he could remain unknown. He hired they young man's wife to be his brother's reader and to use her against Paolo. _

_A great heart cannot be fooled with deviant ways. Not even the devil herself could seduce the bond of love between the two of them. They were neither shaken nor affected by the evil doings of Aveline. Damon became soft and lived his life as human as possible for the longest time while he acquainted with Paolo and his wife. He was amazed by their bond and by the relationship that they had. They had nothing but each other. And they accepted him without chauvinism. Something he had not had in a while. And something he will never again get from his brother. _

_When her child was born too early and she was too weak, she chose for her little girl to live and her life was taken. Yet the bond of love between her husband was still as strong as anything could be. He did not go for other things and he did not break down. His little girl was his life now. _

_Damon knew of his brother's doing and his wariness of his ways then, but he cared not for any dispute against him. He just wanted to be left alone. For months he stayed away from the world, only doing things that he was good at. Drowning himself in the ecstasy of blood at drunken bars and of homeless people. _

_He was too far gone and too deep in his malice when he heard Paolo was bringing her back to Mystic Falls. Little that he knew that Linden was there to welcome them. He watched from a far. "Sofea, my little Sofea." He whispered quietly. _

"_Her mother left us." Paolo said as he gave the little one to Linden to hold. "Her name is Sofea Salvatore Alesci. A chill ran over him as he heard of the name that he has not heard for decades. He chose not to ask, yet his heart cried to know what was wrong. _

_For days they stayed and finally, Paolo decided to go back where he belongs. His heart was heavy but he drove himself and his little one anyway. _

_All he saw was a figure curled up in the middle of the road. Stefan. They were too far and Damon could not get there in time to save either of them. When he did get there, Paolo was already seized of any movement. But his little angel was crying. He carried her hand he ran. He ran as fast and as far as he could so he could be away from that place. _

_After years of living and denying, Damon acquired the skill of getting hold of important documents. He changed her name. He changed her identity and he wiped clean her memories. All that she will know is that her mother died giving birth to her and her father died trying to save her. But somehow his compelling spell did not completely work._

_Ferfaen Alesci was born. Sofea Salvatore Alesci never existed. Every night he watched her. She grew up in the most horrendous way a girl could wish. It was his fault. She could have gotten all the love in the world but the result of envy and resentment he had going with his brother, she had to grow up in hell. _

_It was not enough. Stefan lured Aveline and turned her. Ferfaen was too frail for her. Aveline actually did love her. She staked herself and without knowing Ferfaen saw the only person that had ever loved her committed suicide. Her hell grew worse as time went. That was until, Damon threatened for the Fillippe to gave her up to Linden._

_As Linden gave him earth and the taste of heaven, so did Damon to Ferfaen._

"She wasn't meant to live." Stefan spoke appearing from nowhere.

Linden felt a sudden rush of anger coursed in him. "Tell me one reason for me to not snap your neck right now." He spoke.

"Because you saved us from the only hell we had ever knew of." Damon spoke leaving his brother to ponder against his words.

P/s: I'm sorry to have changed the past story of Stefan and Damon… I have just bought the books and just started reading it… So when I started writing this, I was fully basing it on my interpretation of the TV version (which I only watched a few episodes), now that I know, I hope Vampire Diaries fans would not kill me. Again, I'm sorry.


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